Egg Boats are eggs fried inside a thick slice of rustic bread. Egg boats are cooked until the bread is golden and crusty, and the egg tastes like custard where it clings to the bread and like a soft boiled egg in the center. If you’re a little bit fancy, make your boats Moonstruck by sautéing a few leftover veggies on the side (roasted peppers, lemony broccolini or kale salad are the best for this) and finishing it all with a hearty dusting of flaked sea salt. Egg boats take 10 minutes to make, but sitting down to this breakfast feels like being taken care of (and they also make an amazingly quick and satisfying dinner).
I want to make sure that everyone knows that “egg boats” are not “eggs in a hole.” I was once on a Camp Fire sleepover and the parents made eggs in a hole for breakfast. The difference between egg boats and eggs in a hole is the difference between eating a rustic Italian-American breakfast and gnawing on a sawdust covered rubber ducky.
In the movie Moonstruck, Olympia Dukakis makes egg boats for Cher as they discuss Cher’s upcoming marriage to a guy who isn’t going to take her to the Opera, make love to her, and then bake her bread in his undershirt. (The guy who will do those things is Nicholas Cage and Moonstruck is the only movie where Nicholas Cage is sexy). One further note, my dad introduced egg boats to our family. He readily admits that he rewound the VHS tape several times to watch Olympia Dukakis make them.
Notes
Egg Type
I like to use large eggs. If you’re using extra large or jumbo, then you’ll need to cut slightly bigger holes in your bread.
Bread Type
You can make these with any type of bread, really. Sourdough gives a nice tang to counter-balance the eggs and add to the buttery taste. I do find that breads with an open crumb (lots of air bubbles) are far superior to sandwich style breads that have a tight crumb. Loaf size varies so much, that you will have to decide how many loaves you need. You’re aiming for about a 1-1.5 inch slice for each boat and 1-2 boats per person.
Key Ingredients
peasant style bread
eggs
butter
Egg Boats – Recipe
Serves 2-4. easily doubles, triples, ext.. Takes 10 minutes start to finish
Ingredients
- 4 slices of peasant loaf style bread
- 4 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- Flaked sea salt or table salt
Step One
Preheat a large pan over medium heat. Cut bread into slices and then using a sharp knife, cut about a 2.5 inch diameter circle in each slice (it does not need to be a perfect circle). Butter one side of the bread and the circle of bread that you just cut. Then, place butter side down in the preheated pan. Drop about ½ teaspoon of butter in the hole, and as soon as the butter starts to sizzle in the hole, drop the egg in.
Step Two
Cook the egg boat about 2-3 minutes until the bread is toasty (you can just use the bread circle cutout to gauge the level of toastiness and decide when the boat is ready to flip). Once the boat is about ready to flip, spread a couple of small (about 1/2 teaspoon) pieces of butter onto untoasted side of the bread and place one on top of the egg (see photo below). Carefully flip the whole thing over and flip the little egg hole bread piece as well.
Step Three
Cook until bread is toasty and egg reaches desired level of gooeyness.